Everett Mayor Stands Firm as Local Paper Hits Him Hard on Steve Wynn

Poor Carlo DeMaria, the mayor of Everett, has been getting his brains beat in by one local newspaper for not publicly denouncing disgraced ex-casino mogul Steve Wynn and for standing behind The Wynn Corp. as it fights to keep its Eastern Massachusetts casino license.

On Thursday, April 12, the Everett Leader Herald ran an editorial on the front page under the headline, “Mayor Loath to Lose Wynn; Silence Would Have Been Golden.”  You could hear the thunder booming as you read it.

“That the mayor, who has younger children,” it said, “has not denounced Wynn and the sexual harassment culture that is pervasive in the business he founded and grew is a mistake, an oversight of mountainous proportion for a man who believes this city is his own and that he has the moral temperament and resolve to lead the way.”

One week later, on April 19, in a front-page commentary, the Leader Herald again could not contain its indignation.

“We have a mayor,” it cried, “who has yet to say one word about Steven Wynn’s appalling behavior – as the governor called it.

“The Attorney General has asked for the license to be stripped from Wynn Resorts.

“The Boston Globe has done the same.

“The Gaming Commission in the meanwhile is muddling along with an investigation that might have its results set for the public sometime in the summer.

“No need to rush.

“With (commission chairman) Crosby at the helm, anything is possible – even satisfying the mayor’s beg for Wynn Resorts to stay when nearly everyone thinking straight around here knows it is time for them to go.”

Mayor DeMaria has provoked such wrath because he dares to perceive something large at stake at this moment for his city and is proceeding cautiously so as not to harm Everett in the long run or have it lose any portion of the multiple, substantial benefits it has won in negotiations with the Wynn Corp. if the organization were forced to sell out and if the succeeding casino operator were able to abrogate some of Wynn’s commitments to the city.

“There’s a grander vision here than just a casino,” DeMaria said in a recent prepared statement.  “We are planning for a whole new district in the City of Everett that can generate a lot of great jobs.  The Wynn Corporation has demonstrated it can partner with us to fulfill that vision.”

Responding to reports that the corporation is exploring a sale of its unfinished casino on the site of an old Monsanto chemical factory in Everett, DeMaria continued, “I am deeply concerned that a new owner would not honor that vision and could have plans that fall far short of what we want to see happen – a complete transformation of an area that had been blighted, contaminated, and under-utilized before the Wynn development team arrived.”  

DeMaria concluded, “I am encouraged the commission has begun the process of removing Mr. Wynn as a qualifier and a participant in the gaming license.  I believe that anyone else (in the Wynn Corp.) who is found unsuitable as a result of their process should also be removed so we can move forward with this project.  This high-performing organization of 27,000 employees worldwide is the right partner for us, right now, and I want their work to continue on in Everett.”

I admire DeMaria for having the courage and loyalty to stand by this company at its lowest and weakest point when it would have been easier -- it would have been expedient -- to trash it all over the place.

Steve Wynn has been unmasked as a sex harasser, an exploiter and a victimizer of women.  He clearly lacks the moral fiber, the character, to run a publicly traded company and to hold a casino license from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

It’s good that all the bad stuff about Steve Wynn the person is finally out, for all the world to see.  It is good and it is just that Wynn was forced to resign as president/CEO of the company and to divest himself of all shares he held in the company.  Those shares amounted to 12% of the company’s stock, meaning other parties owned an 88% majority stake in the company.  The Wynn Corp. is much bigger than one person, or several persons.

I don’t believe for a second that Carlo DeMaria believes Steve Wynn is an OK guy and that his bad treatment of women is an insignificant matter.

I was glad to see that, in his recent prepared statement, DeMaria mentioned the Wynn Corp.’s transformation of that “blighted, contaminated, under-utilized” site on the Mystic River, in the inner Boston Harbor.  It’s hard to see how any other company would have had the resources or the rationale to invest $30 million-plus in the massive environmental remediation required before a single piece of steel for the casino could be lifted into place.

As part of that clean-up, the toxic sediments along the Everett Mystic River/Boston Harbor waterfront have been removed and public access to that waterfront has been guaranteed.  Where once there was an off-limits, poisoned piece of shore, there will be a restored waterfront for the free enjoyment of the public.  That should count for something as the Gaming Commission wrestles with the issue of revoking the Wynn Corp. license.